Makers of better things for better living through chemistry, presents the cavalcade
of America.
Our story, a medal for Miss Walker.
Our star, Dorothy McGuire.
The city of Washington in the war year of 1862 was a military camp.
Its stately buildings transformed for the most part into temporary barracks and hospitals.
On the streets of the city moving slowly, unsteadily, were the men returning from battle.
They would pause for a moment at a street corner, lean against an iron railing, sit
on a curbstone, or they'd be carried into the hospitals.
Our story begins in one of these hospitals.
It was called Indiana Hospital.
You men against the wall, you'll have to move, I'm sorry.
Excuse me, please, can you tell me where I...
No women allowed here, ma'am, you'll have to get out.
I want to see Dr. Green.
He's operating, ma'am.
Where is the operating room?
Last one at the end of the corridor.
Thank you.
Oh, wait, now you come back here.
Do you hear me?
You come back here.
I'm sorry, I must get by.
Good luck, lady, will you?
I'm sorry.
Just let me pass by, please.
Thanks.
Is that you, corporal?
Bring in the next patient.
I don't know how it...
What the devil are you doing here?
Dr. Green?
Get out of here.
I have a letter to you from Dr. Billings of Syracuse.
I am not interested in any letters.
Landsakes, can't you see what's going on here?
Myself, no one else but me and all these men, broken, bleeding.
And you ramble in here with a letter.
Do you have another apron?
An apron?
Dr. Green, to save time, I'll be very explicit.
My name is Mary Walker.
I'm a duly qualified physician.
I want to help you.
A woman, doctor?
Yes, does that shock you?
No.
Displeased you?
I know.
Well, then, let's not waste any more time.
Orderly.
Yes, ma'am?
Bring in the next patient.
Wake up, Dr. Green.
Wake up.
Oh, who is it?
It's four in the morning.
Four?
You were so exhausted, I just didn't have the heart to wake you.
There were a dozen patients that I...
Oh, I've taken care of them.
Thank you.
How, how did you make out?
Oh, I don't know.
I did what I could.
I think they'll be all right.
Here, I've got some coffee for you.
Thank you.
Tell me something, miss, I mean doctor.
Yes?
Are you real or are you an angel in disguise?
Guaranteed, blood and flesh.
Too bad.
Too bad?
Yes.
I was hoping that you were made of some less earthy material so that I could summon you
whenever I'm tired.
I am very, very tired.
Dr. Green, I want to work here with you.
Why?
You need help.
But this is no place for a woman.
Oh, don't ever say that to me again, Dr. Green.
It's the one thing that, that revolts me to the point of nausea.
Why isn't this a place for a woman?
Does a wound fester because a female applied a dressing?
What are we, pariahs, play carriers?
No, no, of course not.
You saw me work at the operating table all evening.
Did I do well?
You were magnificent.
Would you say that in a note to Surgeon General Finley?
Yes.
Then do it for me.
I'm going to see him this afternoon.
You expect to get a commission?
I do.
I'll write you your letter of recommendation, Dr. Walker, but you'll never get a commission.
Why?
As a doctor, you can fight death.
You can fight disease.
But the one thing you can't fight is stupidity.
And that's what you're bucking.
Prejudice.
The meanest form of stupidity.
It's quite impossible, Dr. Walker.
A woman doctor in the medical department.
Fantastic idea.
Why, General Finley, why is it so fantastic?
Because...
Oh, now, madam, doctor, you must realize...
I realize only one thing.
Our soldiers are desperately in need of medical care.
I'm qualified.
It's a preposterous idea.
Whether men themselves would stay in the fields and die rather than be treated by a woman.
You don't know that to be true.
I'm very busy, Dr. Walker.
You'll have to excuse me.
Then you won't appoint me.
I will not.
All right, General.
Should you change your mind, you can reach me at the Indiana Hospital.
Now, Billy, it may hurt just a little, but I do have to change this dressing.
You've got the prettiest hair.
Have I now?
Like, like satin it is.
Now, hold still.
May I touch it, ma'am?
Oh, if you'd like to.
You've been around, ma'am.
It brings to mind a fact a soldier soon forgets that there's goodness in the world and things
are beauty.
There.
Now, does that feel more comfortable?
Hardly so.
Why are you here, ma'am?
Why?
I'm a doctor.
Yes, ma'am, you're a doctor.
But up in the cities with the fashionable women, I reckon you might do real well.
My place is where I'm most needed.
Billy, we're all put down on earth to do our little job.
And if we're true to ourselves, we don't seek reward so much as we seek inner satisfaction.
Out in the battlefield, when you took up the charge, were medals on your mind?
No, ma'am, it was what I had to do.
Well, that's why I'm here, Billy.
My reason is the same as yours.
It's just what I have to do.
Get that woman in here directly, Dr. Green.
Very well, General Finlay.
Corporal.
Sir.
Have Dr. Walker come to my office.
Yes, sir.
I place the blame for this incredible situation directly with you, Dr. Green.
If you turned her out at the beginning, this would never have happened.
She's done tremendous service in this hospital.
I can't describe how she's worked tirelessly, and the men worship her.
How ridiculous.
She may be a woman, but she's done a man's work.
Come in.
You sent for me, Dr. Green?
Come in, Dr. Walker.
Oh, General Finlay.
Dr. Walker.
How do you do, sir?
Not very well.
Madam, there are a few things in the world so calculated to inflame a man's temper as
presumptuous behavior by a person of inferior rank.
I wasn't aware that I held any rank, General Finlay.
And more to the point, I don't know what you're talking about.
I'm talking about this letter.
Did you write this letter to President Lincoln, madam?
Yes.
You took great liberties.
I don't think so.
When you denied my request for a commission, you gave me no alternative but to repeat my
request to your commander in chief.
What did Mr. Lincoln say to my request?
He penciled it on the letter.
Here, read it for yourself.
I am willing, eh, Lincoln?
Well?
Well what, Dr. Green?
Nothing, just well.
All right, young lady, I'll give you an appointment.
Oh, that's wonderful, General.
But I will not give you an appointment to the regular medical corps.
Nothing in Mr. Lincoln's endorsement orders me to do that.
I will appoint you a contract surgeon, however, with no official military rank.
Is that understood?
I accept the appointment.
Very well.
I'm sending you to the Western Department to Chattanooga.
Dr. Green tells me you enjoy doing a man's job.
Very well.
You're going to get a firsthand view of a man's war.
Good day.
Are you going to accept?
This is not what you really wanted, is it, Mary?
Well, what I want is a full commission and the chance to prove that a woman has a right
to earn one.
Oh, well, this is a step in the right direction.
I'm going to miss you here.
You've been very wonderful to me, Dr. Green.
Mary, all this time you haven't accepted a penny from the government, from me.
You're going to need some financial assistance.
I don't have much.
No, no, thank you.
I couldn't take anything like that.
Oh, but there is just one thing you can do for me.
What is it?
You can let me have your old uniform, the one you said you were going to throw away because
it was so worn.
Let me have that.
My uniform?
Yes.
Well, now, what would you do with that?
Wear it.
Perhaps General Finley can prevent my getting a commission.
But if I'm going to the front, I want to go in uniform.
I want to be properly dressed for the occasion.
Dr. Walker, two more ambulances just arrived with more wounded.
And every minute more are coming in on foot.
Is there any more room in the main tent?
No, ma'am, not an inch.
Use my tent then and send word to headquarters we must have more dressings, more medicine,
more ether.
Yes, ma'am.
Tell them we've got to have help up here.
What about the rest of the men?
We're evacuating this position.
All able men get up and get moving.
Dr. Walker, pack up and get.
We can't move these men.
Well, then we'll have to leave them.
Leave them?
That's orders.
I won't obey such orders.
It's inhuman.
Ma'am, I haven't time to argue.
Now move out.
I'll not do that.
Did you hear me?
I said it was orders.
I won't leave my men.
All men but litter cases, fall in and start moving.
Dr. Walker, you're ordered to fall into ranks.
I have over 20 men who can't be moved.
We can't leave them without proper orders.
I'm not going to leave them without orders.
What will they do to us, ma'am? What will they do when they come?
Nothing, they'll be treated as prisoners of war.
It's the bayonet for us, I'll look what they do.
No, now it isn't true. Please, everyone, lie quietly.
Try to be calm.
Here they come. Here they come.
Be quiet, please.
Who's in charge here?
I am.
You're all my prisoners, I...
You.
You said you were in charge here.
Yes, I'm Dr. Walker.
A woman.
That's right.
Well, I'll be bushwhacked.
It is a woman.
You hold a regular commission in the Federal Army, ma'am?
Why, no, not exactly, but I...
And yet you're in Federal uniform.
I'm sorry, ma'am, but I've got no choice.
You're under arrest as a spy.
Dr. Mary Walker, of the specification, charge one,
that you were found lurking as a spy in and about the fortifications
of the Confederate States of America
in an attempt to insinuate yourself among the troops
for the purpose of the war.
That you were found to be among the troops
for the purpose of collecting information
with regard to their numbers and resources.
And that you contrived to achieve this purpose
by disguising yourself by a change of dress.
This court finds you guilty.
Dr. Mary Walker, the sentence of this court
is that you shall suffer death
according to the law and usage of nations.
And now we return to our cavalcade story,
A Medal for Miss Walker,
starring Dorothy McGuire as Dr. Mary Walker.
Refusing to leave her badly wounded patients
in the face of an attack by the Confederate forces
before Chattanooga, Dr. Mary Walker,
a contract surgeon attached to the Union Army,
has been taken prisoner.
Because she was found in the uniform of a Union officer,
she has been tried by court martial
and condemned to death as a spy.
It's a few days later now
in the headquarters of General Braxton Bragg,
commander of the Confederate forces.
I am very distressed, Colonel,
very much distressed by this whole distasteful situation.
The court martial had no choice
but to declare Dr. Walker guilty, General.
She was found wearing the Federal uniform.
She does not hold a regular commission.
I know all that.
She must have some reason I've sent for her.
For the prisoner?
Isn't that a bit unusual, sir?
Ordering a woman to be shot as a trifle unusual too, Colonel.
She must be unusual and extremely unpleasant.
Yes, sir.
If her explanation is satisfactory, as I trust it will be,
we'll send her back bag in baggage
and be finished with the affair.
As you wish, sir.
You are exactly right, Colonel.
That is precisely what I wish.
Oh! Oh!
She's here now. Bring her in.
Yes, sir.
And I do not want a sobbing woman on my hands, Colonel.
Let us make this interview short.
Yes, sir.
In here, please, Dr. Walker.
General Bragg, the prisoner.
Ah, yes, Dr. Walker.
General Bragg, I've always had the highest esteem
for the exalted Southern virtue of honorable conduct.
Madam.
I can see now that I was completely mistaken.
Now, now, Doctor, if you'll just tell me exactly what...
I'll tell you nothing until you tell me something.
What has happened to my men?
Your men?
My patients. What's happened to them?
Colonel, they're in the prisoners' compound, sir.
And how long do you think they'll live without medical care?
General Bragg, I demand the right to stay with my patients
until they can be transferred to a hospital.
That is impossible.
Why?
Because you are not a legitimate prisoner of war.
Now, let us forget that and go on to a far more serious matter.
You have been condemned as a spy.
What are you to say about that?
What can I say?
If my wearing of federal uniform makes me out a spy,
then I am a spy.
No doubt there's the result of some emergency.
Your own clothes were ripped and torn during the battle.
Isn't that it?
No, sir. It was not it.
I wore that uniform deliberately,
and I was proud to wear it.
But you were not entitled to wear it.
You have no commission.
The only reason I don't have a commission is because of my sex.
And I consider that reason invalid and immaterial.
Yes, yes.
Well, that is a call I suggest you take up with General Grant.
I'll make you out of pass.
That'll get you through our lines.
You're sending me back?
I am.
As a civilian?
Of course.
I refuse to go.
What?
I demand to be treated as a legitimate prisoner of war.
Madam, are you out of your mind?
Not at all.
Either you treat me as a prisoner of war
and permit me to go back to my patients,
or you can treat me as a spy and shoot me.
But that is a ridiculous alternative.
One way or the other.
Madam, I am busy fighting a war.
I can't get involved in your attempt to wangle a commission
out of the Federal Army.
I will not go back as a civilian.
That's the only way I can send you back.
I refuse to go.
Blast it, Madam.
Infectives will get you nowhere, General.
Pearl, get this woman out of here.
Take her to Richmond.
Take her to President Davis, if necessary.
May I come in, Dr. Walker?
Rather unusual for the warden to waste
amenities on his prisoner, Mr. Priestley.
Why, yes, but I'm not the usual type of warden,
and you're not the usual type of prisoner.
How nice of you to say that.
You have a visitor, Doctor, most important.
Really?
Mr. Walton.
Joseph Walton.
Very close to President Davis.
Well, I should be very happy to meet him.
Yes.
Won't you come in, Mr. Walton?
Dr. Walker, Mr. Walton.
How do you do, sir?
A great pleasure, Madam.
If you want me, I'll be right out in the car.
Thank you.
I should like to offer you a chair,
but as you can see, sir, these accommodations
are not exactly the best.
Well, Castle Thunder is not noted
for its lush appointments.
I'm very proud to meet you, Dr. Walker.
As you probably know, you've become
a rather celebrated personality.
Oh, is that so?
Oh, yes.
The story of your bravery in refusing to leave
the wounded on the battlefield of Chattanooga
is an international sensation.
You're quite a heroine, you know.
No, I didn't know.
I don't feel heroic.
I'm merely a physician seeking to live up
to an oath I took many years ago,
and one for which I've labored very hard
and very long.
I'm sure of that.
I want to be with my patients.
May I go with them?
Uh, no, no, that's not possible.
However, President Davis has reversed
the decision of the court-martial.
He has asked me to convey to you
the good news that you will be released at once.
Please be good enough to convey my thanks
to President Davis for his kindness.
But tell him I will not leave this prison
unless I can go to my patients and remain with them
until, in my professional opinion,
they no longer need medical care.
But, ma-ma'am, I...
Doctor!
Doctor, I can't go back to the president
and tell him you refused to be released.
But I do refuse.
I flatly refuse.
Priestley, we've got to have an end to this.
The president is furious.
The newspapers around the world
have made a cause celebrity out of this Walker case.
Enormous pressures are being brought to bear on the president.
We must get him out of this embarrassing position.
Why, yes, yes, I understand, Mr. Wharton,
but, uh, what do you want me to do?
You're the Wharton here.
Now, uh, now suppose you left her cell door open.
After all, if she escapes,
that's the right of any prisoner of war now, isn't it?
Why, yes, yes, of course.
Do it.
Well, uh, good night, Dr. Walker.
Good night, Mr. Priestley.
Oh, dear me, dear me.
These old locks, they never work very well, you know.
Oh?
Oh, well, I suppose I'll have to leave it open.
Good night, Doctor.
Good night.
Well, Wharton, you left her cell door open?
Yes, just as you said.
And what happened?
She shut it. She said it created a draft.
Halt! Halt!
Who's there?
I am Joseph Wharton, personal representative of President Davis.
Your credentials, please.
Right here.
Very well, sir, you may pass.
Where will I find Colonel Marsh?
This is his tent here, sir. I'll fetch him for you.
Thank you.
Colonel Marsh says that Mr. Wharton is...
Oh, yes, yes.
Well, Mr. Wharton, a pleasant surprise.
How are you, Colonel?
May I help you out, Doctor?
Thank you, Mr. Wharton.
Well, I'll be a Walker woman.
Dr. Walker, Colonel.
Oh, yes, of course, Dr. Walker.
Colonel Marsh?
By order of the prison, Colonel,
I am turning over Dr. Mary Walker to your custody.
My custody?
She will be treated as a legitimate prisoner of war.
Draw the pay and enjoy all privileges set down by the usages of war.
Yes, sir.
Dr. Walker, I never believed I'd see the day
when I would congratulate a Yankee on a victory.
But this is such a day.
You have what you want. Your patience.
Thank you.
Colonel Marsh, where are my men?
In the compound, Yonder.
That... that mud hole?
I'm sorry if our accommodations don't meet with your approval.
I want a detail of men to clean that place up.
A detail?
Soap, clean linen, blankets...
Now, see, here we...
Dressing, medicine, and isolation tents.
But...
Colonel Marsh, you heard the doctor?
What this is?
See that your prisoner's orders are obeyed.
You sent for me, General Finley?
Oh, yes, yes, Dr. Green, come in.
I think I owe you an apology, sir.
An apology?
Your Dr. Walker.
She's proved herself more than able to hold down a man's job.
And now I've got good news for you.
She's coming home.
Coming home?
Yep.
She's got her patients on the road to recovery.
And now the Confederates have informed us that she's eligible for a job.
And now I've got good news for you.
She's coming home.
Coming home?
Yep.
She's got her patients on the road to recovery.
And now the Confederates have informed us that she's eligible for exchange.
Of course, we've agreed.
That's wonderful.
I'm putting one over from them, though.
I'll tell you that.
Really?
Certainly, yeah.
They figured we'd exchange her on the basis of rank.
After all, she's only an assistant surgeon.
Rank no higher than lieutenant.
You know what I'm doing?
Watch her.
I'm sending them back a full colonel.
For Mary Walker, that's what I consider a fair exchange.
Oh, Dr. Green, it was very kind of you to come down to the dock just to meet me.
I do appreciate it.
I was happy to.
Oh, getting home isn't really getting home unless there's a friendly pace to see.
How do you feel, Mary?
You look tired and worn.
I'm all right.
Why are we turning into the parade ground?
There's a little matter of business we have to attend to.
Driver, drop in front of that troop of soldiers.
But I don't understand what...
Well, you have to report back to your regiment.
They're stationed here in Washington now.
There's Colonel McCook.
Oh, I'm afraid to see him.
The last time we met, I believe I refused to obey one of his orders.
And no doubt he hasn't forgotten them.
All right, here we are.
My hand, Dr. Walker.
Thank you.
Company, attention!
General Order Number 41664.
By order of the President of the United States,
the Medal of Honor is hereby awarded to Dr. Mary Walker
for heroic service above and beyond the call of duty.
Attest, the Secretary of War.
Congratulations, Doctor.
Thank you, Colonel.
Thank you very much.
Our thanks to Dorothy McGuire and the Cavalcade players for tonight's true story.
Tonight's DuPont Cavalcade was written by Irv Tunick.
Original music was composed by Arden Cornwell, conducted by Donald Borey.
The program was directed by John Zoller.
With our star, Dorothy McGuire, you heard Cameron Prudham as Dr. Green,
Alan Hewitt as Finley, Stots Cotsworth as Marsh,
Ed Begley as Bragg, Arnold Moss as Priestley, and Charles Dingell as Walton.
And this is Cy Harris reminding you to be with us next week
when the DuPont Cavalcade will present Down Break, starring Cornel Wilde.
The DuPont Cavalcade of America came to you from the Velasco Theatre in New York City
and is sponsored by the DuPont Company of Wilmington, Delaware,
makers of better things for better living through chemistry.
Tonight, just for laughs, listen to Red Skelton on NBC.